Highlights and Zaner-Bloser: Shared Beliefs About Learning
Did you know that Zaner-Bloser is a member of the Highlights Family of Companies? The two companies don’t merely share office space and financial statements. They share beliefs about learning and a commitment to supporting children.
Highlights for Children: An Icon of Childhood
Two nationally recognized leaders in education and child development created Highlights magazine in 1946. Dr. Garry Cleveland Myers and his wife Caroline Clark Myers believed that children become their "best selves" by using their creativity and imagination; developing their reading, thinking, and reasoning skills; and learning to treat others with respect, kindness, and sensitivity. Every issue for 80 years and counting reflects that philosophy through stories, brainteasers, and crafts, including iconic Goofus and Gallant comics and Hidden Pictures puzzles.
Two additional facts have distinguished Highlights across all those decades. First, the magazine contains no advertisements. The Myers family believed strongly that children should explore stories, puzzles, and activities without commercial interruption.
Second, the Highlights editorial team responds to every single piece of correspondence it receives from children. That’s tens of thousands of letters, emails, poems, and drawings each year! This tradition of deep listening and response is documented in Dear Highlights, a book published in 2021. It reveals common patterns in children’s hopes, dreams, worries, and concerns across three generations—and what adults can glean from them.
Highlights is such a staple of childhood, in fact, that it shows up regularly in pop culture references, including The New Yorker, late night comedy shows, sitcoms, and comedy dramas. Our Highlights colleagues’ favorite clips include The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Beavis and Butt-Head, Glee, The Simpsons, Gilmore Girls, and Stranger Things.
While the environment in which children are growing up has changed since the first Highlights magazine was published, much about being a kid remains the same. Children still want to be seen, heard, and respected—and those are still opportunities that Highlights provides. The company now publishes its flagship magazine alongside additional magazines, books, and subscription boxes for children.
Photo courtesy of Highlights.
Zaner-Bloser: From Handwriting to Foundational Skills
Zaner-Bloser was likewise established by two education pioneers, many decades before the first Highlights magazine was published.
Charles Paxton Zaner founded the Zanerian College of Penmanship in Columbus, Ohio, in 1888, teaching students the art and business of penmanship. Because typewriters were not yet in widespread use, professional penman and women were in high demand. In business they managed logbooks, recorded policies and procedures, wrote correspondence, and created certificates. In schools these highly skilled professionals taught penmanship to adults as well as children.
The demand for handwriting instruction quickly revealed a need for high-quality instructional materials, and Charles Zaner brought in a business partner named Elmer Bloser to help create them. Together they formed the Zaner-Bloser Company and expanded their method of handwriting instruction to elementary schools in the early twentieth century. Many generations of elementary students have learned print and cursive using the proven Zaner-Bloser approach for over 120 years!
Zaner-Bloser joined the Highlights Family of Companies in 1972 and, with expanded expertise and partnerships, has grown to support classroom instruction more broadly in literacy and math. Our resources help students develop a wide range of foundational skills, including decoding, spelling, vocabulary, language structures, counting, number sense, place value, operations, and fact fluency—to name a few!
Shared Beliefs and Commitment to Children
Highlights and Zaner-Bloser share a belief that is frequently spoken aloud in decision-making meetings and literally printed on the walls where many of those meetings take place: Children are the world’s most important people.
Children must know that they matter. In a classroom, that means students feel a sense of belonging, hear their own voices, share responsibility for their learning community, and have a sense of ownership over their learning.
Our materials are designed with these beliefs and others top of mind, and related questions guide our day-to-day work.
- What do children need right now?
- How do they learn and what motivates them to do so?
- How might we build their confidence?
- What brings children joy?
That question about joy is an important one to both companies. Highlights is known for its motto “Fun With a Purpose,” and at Zaner-Bloser we talk about inspiring “aha” moments. We believe that learning is an act of joyful discovery, and our materials help teachers create spaces where “aha” moments take place. The surprise and delight of uncovering something hidden or making a connection between two ideas . . . that is learning.
Learning Materials Rich in Joy and Purpose
That intentional blending of learning and joy is evident in The Superkids Reading Program, Zaner-Bloser’s comprehensive K–2 English language arts curriculum, where students meet and grow with a cast of endearing and relatable characters, dig into Big Topics, and explore daily reading, writing, and word work on their way to becoming skillful readers.
It is evident in Kickstart Math Intervention, Zaner-Bloser’s systematic small-group solutions that boost confidence and math positivity while targeting skills students need to access their K–5 core math curriculum and get out of intervention for good.
It is evident in partner work, games, and progress monitoring in all of Zaner-Bloser’s research-based, teacher-trusted resources. Ask your sales consultant for a sample to see for yourself.
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